Beware of the Beasts in Human Skin
by TwinCarcino
Summary: They just want to be happy. They just want to find love. They just want to be safe. The world doesn't want them to have any of that. (A series of interconnected oneshots)
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note:** Hey, everyone. Just so you know here and now, this is a series of one shots that'll likely update multiple times a week. Connected oneshots. All of these take place within the same universe (Though, not necessarily at the same time). It is a supernatural AU that will contain violence, blood, abuse, pregnancy, character deaths and racial discrimination (Hate crimes against supernaturals). It will also contain various ships.

The ones planned at the moment are Jasper/Lapis, Rose/Greg, Lapis/Peridot, Ruby/Sapphire, Zircons, and Connie/Steven. More ships may appear later on.

And, one final note? This is not going to be a happy series of stories. Happy endings do not exist here.

The M Rating is there for the violence and general unhappy/dark nature of this rather than explicit sexual content.

* * *

Lapis meets a stranger and falls in love.

* * *

When they had first met, Lapis was still in high school. A junior year dealing with a family that ranged from negligent to abusive and a school that discriminated against people like her. She was seventeen years old, but she had dealt with more bullshit from the world than most people in their eighties had. Her parents were dead, her family on her father's side was unreachable (Possibly dead themselves with how life was) and she was stuck living with her family from her mother's side. That consisted of her aunt, uncle and two cousins. They were horrible.

They were also human.

Lapis was not.

That was half of the reason that the Bleu family despised her, the other half was because she was gay and had no real intention to stay closeted.

Her Aunt, Holly Bleu, made a point of demeaning her every chance she got because of these two things. She'd run the house extra hot some days, knowing that Lapis dehydrated far easier than her human relatives. She'd make crude, homophobic comments offhandedly whenever Lapis was in earshot.

Most days, Lapis just wanted to dive into the ocean and never come back. She could do that, too. She was half-mer after all. Merfolk had lived underwater for centuries until they decided that they were to join the rest of the supernatural and join the upper world.

The only problem had been that the humans weren't ready.

Even now, in the year twenty-seventeen, after all these wars, riots, protests and laws had been passed to ensure equality (not that there really was any to begin with), the louder part of the human race seemed to have no intention of letting the supernatural live among them. They were loud about it. Violent about it. When it became apparent that their voice alone wasn't enough to keep Congress from passing Human-Supernatural Equality Bill, they took other means.

All they had to do to keep from getting in trouble was to make it look like the supernatural had instigated the conflict and they could kill the person. So long as they could prove that the other part was acting aggressively in any way or form and nine out of ten courts would let them go with just a slap on the wrist.

It was bullshit.

So many people like her, supernatural people, were murdered on the daily for doing no other reason than that they were a vampire, a werebeast, a witch or so on, were anything but a pure blooded human. They rarely got justice. If the supernatural being was with another human who tried protecting them, the attackers would kill the human and claim it was the supernatural who killed them. Their killers were often heralded as victims of a malicious attack from the 'beasts' of their kind, and called heroes for 'standing up for themselves'. It made Lapis sick to her stomach.

It was how her parents died. Her father was killed for being a merman, her mother for trying to defend him.

It's why she was now living with her awful aunt Holly.

She hated it here. She hated it in this city. But, she had to soldier through it. She had to at least finish high school (If she lived long enough to) and she had to at least get her diploma. Then, depending on what she wanted after that, she could go into the sea and live with the other merfolk underwater and away from all them (Though that was growing more dangerous as time went on. The water pollution could and would cause long-term health problems, such as cancer) or she could find herself a college or home in a primarily supernatural community where she'd be safe.

But either way, she wouldn't really know anyone in her new home. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing. Maybe a fresh start was what she needed.

She hadn't yet made up her mind at the time of which she would do when they met. She'd just been at a coffee shop drinking some coffee and working on some homework all alone when a towering figure came up and slid into the booth across from her.

The woman was massive; well over six feet tall and built entirely of muscle. Her brown skin had pale patches all across it, her hair was bleached white and her eyes a bright amber. She grinned at Lapis and leaned over to her, glancing back at the door she'd come from.

"Hey, sorry to intrude, could you play along for a bit?" She'd asked. Before Lapis could get a word in, she'd pulled back and broke out laughing, "Oh, man that was a good one! Where do you always come up with these jokes?" she'd asked her with a wide, genuine smile.

Lapis was at a complete loss until a petite little thing came up to the table. She gave Lapis a dirty look and smiled sweetly at the woman, "Jazz, so this is where you came hurrying off to. I thought you said you had something important to do?" she'd asked all sickeningly sweet.

The woman, Jazz, rolled her eyes and gestured to Lapis. "Yeah. I do. I told you I was meeting up with my girlfriend for some coffee, and thanks to you I was late and she started on it all without me," she scoffed and turned back to Lapis, "Again, really sorry for not being on time, babe. Got held up by Aqua, she just would not let me go, couldn't understand that I didn't wanna talk to her."

Lapis looked at the small girl then quirked a smile. Yeah, she could play along, "So _you're_ Aqua?" Lapis asked her and turned to Jazz, "I think you forgot to mention she was British, tiny and annoying when you told me about her."

She could just _hear_ the offense in Aqua's gaze as she took a step back and glared at Lapis like the supernatural was the worst thing on this planet.

Before either could say anything, Jazz looked at Aqua and shook her head, "Can you get going already? I told you I wasn't interested, and as you can see I've a girlfriend now, so you might as well stop bugging me every chance you get."

It took a minute or two of the women quietly bickering until Aqua stormed off and the woman turned and gave Lapis an apologetic smile. She explained the situation, how Aqua was her ex and wouldn't back off and how she may have lied about having a girlfriend to get her to leave her alone. She introduced herself as Jasper and Lapis assured her that it was okay, she was fine with it and asked her if she'd like to stay around for a coffee. In case Aqua came back.

The two had hit it off pretty well. They talked and they learned about each other. Jasper was a freshman at the local college, she was studying physical health. Once a month she'd go out of town and roam the fields for a few days with her pack.

Yeah, Jasper was a werebeast. Specifically, she was the 'classical' werewolf along with her younger sister, a spitfire girl who was three years Lapis' junior. She'd only met Amethyst once, but, Lapis liked her well enough to not roll her eyes and scoff whenever she was brought up in conversations.

The two continued meeting up for coffee after that, too. When Lapis hit her senior year and was eighteen, Jasper asked her out. Lapis accepted, was more than happy to accept. She'd been crushing on Jasper for a while at that point and had been scared Jasper didn't like her that way.

They were happy together, though Lapis' family wasn't too pleased. As soon as they learned about her dating Jasper they'd given her a choice: Dump Jasper or move out.

She chose to move out, Jasper was happy to let her move in.

Life together was like a fairytale. Jasper always hugged and kissed her each morning, she drove her to school, they helped each other with their homework (Lapis was exceptionally good with English and history, while Jasper excelled in sciences and math). They took turns cooking dinner, they always went out on a date each week. They encouraged each other. They _loved_ each other.

When they'd dated for over a year, during the summer after graduation, Lapis found out she was pregnant.

It wasn't like they had intended for it to happen or tried for it to happen. But, sometimes they got lazy about protection and Lapis wasn't always the best at remembering to take the pill. It was startling when she'd taken the test just as a precaution. It was earth-shattering.

Lapis was terrified, they both were.

The two had a long and hard talk about what they were going to do. They could get an abortion, or they could give the child up for adoption. They didn't know which side the child would take after; would it be a werebeast or a merfolk. Did they want to raise a child? Were they even ready to become parents and raise a child?

In the end, the two had decided that they wanted to keep the child. They weren't perfect, but they wanted to do the best they could to give the child a happy and healthy life. Lapis wanted to be a better parent to her child than Holly had been to her, give the child a better home than either of them had.

Jasper was happy to be a parent, she was terrified, but she was happy. She dedicated so much of her freetime to reading books for new parents, looking for bigger apartments or homes they could get so the three of them could all live in it.

They were happy about this, as scary as it was, they were happy.

It was a great life, a life with Jasper, that is. She was happy and she was in love and she was about to have a family of her own. It was a life that Lapis never thought she'd have, but a life she never wanted to give up.

It was raining when it happened.

A full moon, too.

Lapis had been going over magazines and catalogs for baby supplies, looking through cribs and decorations for her baby (she was five months in, four months left and it was showing). Jasper had left for her monthly trips to run with the pack. Lapis didn't really think much of it, she certainly didn't worry at all. Jasper had a pack of twelve with her, she'd be safe. As much problems as these so-called 'defenders of humanity' may be to the supernaturals, they never went after packs. They didn't have the spine to go after a group of supernaturals.

Someone had started banging on her door, startling Lapis.

She'd approached it and looked out the peephole and saw two uniformed individuals standing outside in the rain. She'd recognized one of them as one of the only two vampires on the force. The other, she wasn't sure. But, she presumed her to be human.

Opening the door, the officers introduced themselves; Officer Barriga and Officer Miller. The human, Miller had complimented Lapis on the decor as they sat down in the living room. She was trying to keep the mood up. But, from their somber faces, Lapis knew something had to be wrong.

"You are Jasper Gartens significant other, correct?" the vampire officer asked as she sat on the table, he was a skinny fellow. Certainly an unprofessional look to him, more like a lazy teen than an officer of the law, but Lapis liked that he wasn't a stiff and stuffy uniform man like most others.

Lapis had just nodded, feeling something horrible bubbling up inside of her as she looked between the two police officers, "Yes, I'm her girlfriend," she said slowly. What happened? Was Jasper okay?

Sadie had rested her hand over Lapis' and gave her a sad look. The girl knew before they said anything more what had happened.

During the night Jasper, along with two of her pack mates, had been killed, they weren't sure who it was, but an investigation was in progress. The two officers promised that they would find who killed Jasper. But, Lapis didn't want to hear any of it. She knew what was going to happen. If they found whoever it was who killed her girlfriend, they'd just tell some lie about how Jasper and her friends attacked them. They'd bang themselves up just to make it look like they really were attacked. No one would look any further into it after that and they wouldn't even get a fine.

And she was right.

A week later they found the ones who'd killed them. A bunch of college boys. They'd roughed themselves up like Lapis had bet, made a claim that they'd just been walking home when they were attacked by a group of werewolves and they shot them out of self-defense. Cried to the officers that they didn't want to kill them, but they would have been killed if they hadn't.

The people in charge of the investigation believed every word of it. And why wouldn't they? They were human, too, and they probably hated the supernatural just as much as the kids could.

Lapis knew Jasper. The girl could be violent, but she wouldn't hurt someone. She was a giant teddy bear. The only person who actually gave a shit about Lapis, the only person who cared and loved Lapis.

And now Lapis was alone. Alone. Alone. Alone. She was alone and was going to have this kid alone and God she didn't know what she was doing and how to raise a child on her own. She was scared. So fucking scared. She wanted Jasper back, she didn't want to be alone.

But Jasper wasn't coming back.

And she was going to be alone.


	2. Chapter 2

Being a werewolf wasn't easy for anyone, and it certainly wasn't for Peridot.

* * *

If Peridot had to describe her life with one word, well, there's no way she could do that. Her life was terrible to the point that a single word could not aptly describe how awful her life was and how miserable she was from the moment she woke up to the time she finally fell asleep to a restless night of nightmares and crying.

To make things easier to understand; Peridot Olivine was a werewolf. (Well, technically she was a hyena, not a wolf, but, werewolf rolled off the tongue easier than werehyena.)

She had been one for as long as she could remember. Her elder brother said that she got bit when she was really little. She couldn't remember. She couldn't remember ever _not_ being a werebeast.

To make matters worse: She lived in a world where people hated anyone who wasn't a 'pureblooded' human.

Meaning people like her, they were treated like scum. Bullied, abused and even killed just for being something they had no control over.

Peridot remembered growing up and always seeing on the news about some vampire who was dragged out into the sunlight by some humans, or a werewolf who was shot down like a common animal, or witches burned alive in old factories. Her mother would always grab her by the wrist and point at the TV, saying "That'll be you on the news if you don't behave!"

She always got nightmares after that, dreams where it was her whose charred body was pulled out of the recent arson incident. Where it was her whose animal head was mounted on a wall.

The worst part was these killers never went to jail. The law let these serial killers free because 'it was self-defense'. They didn't care about the safety of the people, or that these same people always kept coming back with blood on their hand.

At least there were some members of the law who were trying to keep people like Peridot safe. They'd included more supernaturals on the police force, they let the supernatural community join the military.

That didn't change anything at home, though.

Her mother would treat Peridot more like an animal than her own child. Her brother constantly called her a 'dumb mutt' if she did something particularly bothersome. She'd sometimes have to eat on the floor if her mother said she was behaving more like a 'filthy beast' and not like a human. Sometimes she'd not even cook her food and instead give her bloodied scraps, knowing full well that Peridot couldn't eat those when she wasn't transformed, but would refuse to let her transform to eat her dinner.

Then, on the nights where she had to transform (A biological compulsion that occurred only a few nights a month) she'd lock her in the fucking toolshed and feed her scraps. If she was feeling nice.

Her brother would sometimes come with his friends and poke her with sticks or throw stuff at her while she was like this, laughing and recording it and just having a grand time at her expense.

It was fucking dehumanizing.

Sometimes they'd even lock her in the basement if she wasn't behaving to her mother's standards. It was cold down there, dirty, dusty and Peridot was scared of the basement.

But, Peridot couldn't do anything about it. It'd been ingrained in her that if she tried to lash out in any way (Physically or verbally) then it'd be her dead body the police would be pulling out of the ditch the next day. She'd been taught not to complain out loud about how she was treated, to just stay quiet and accept that she was a lesser being.

She didn't even have anyone she could talk to about it.

There were people at school, but she wouldn't really call them friends. Sometimes she'd sit and chat with this girl named Amethyst from time to time. They shared bio and she liked to copy her notes. She was also a werewolf and was a proud one at that. Her elder sister was the second in command of a local werebeast pack. Amethyst invited Peridot to join them a few times, to hang out with the pack now and then, but Peridot declined every time.

If her mother found out that Peridot was associating herself with packs, she'd be locked in the shed or basement again or hit or worse.

Sometimes she'd say hi to the girl in her art class. Lapis Lazuli, she was three grades ahead of her, but Peridot was in an advanced art. She was a hybrid kid. Half supernatural and half human. AKA she was human enough that she didn't have it as bad as fullblood supernaturals, but was supernatural enough that she got harassed and bullied and shit just like the others. Peridot sometimes tried to talk to her.

Emphasis on tried.

Lazuli wasn't exactly a talker, she always seemed angry or in some kind of bad mood. Amethyst sometime said (During the occasions they chatted together) she was dating her older sister, Jasper, the same sister who was the packs second in command. She also said that Lazuli was laughing and smiling whenever she hung around Jasper. Peridot couldn't picture the blue haired senior smiling _or_ laughing.

The only person Peridot would say she actually talked frequently to, and about her problems as a supernatural (Not that she'd tell the woman about the full extent of the abuse or harassment, or her family's involvement in it) was her therapist she met twice a week.

Sapphire was a really nice woman. She was exceedingly patient and had a better understanding of werewolves than most therapists Peridot had seen before her (Her therapists before Sapphire had all basically preached that everything that happened to her because she was a werebeast was her own fault, that she should feel bad and guilty because she's the only one at fault for the insults slung at her and the bruises she'd be covered in. They'd been a major reason for her self-loathing and depression. Sapphire was very determined to do the opposite of what they'd done to her and make her see her own worth and not blame herself for her abuse). Sapphire was married to a werewolf, her wife was in the same boat as Peridot where as she was bitten. The psychic had a much better understanding werewolf behavior far better than the humans she'd seen.

She'd even brought Ruby in multiple times to have a were-to-were talk, especially on things that were happening to Peridot that she didn't understand but were a perfectly normal part of being a werewolf. (She'd thought she was going bald at one point, but she had reached the age where she would start shedding both in and out of her were form. Needless to say her mother was not pleased with the hair that would be everywhere)

But, none of that would change anything. When she got home it'd be hell all over. She'd deal with her mother and her brother and their blatant hatred for what she was and their constant abuse, verbal and physical.

It didn't help that tonight was the start of her werewolf monthly. Once she got home, she'd be locked in the shed.


	3. Chapter 3

Being human isn't always a free pass to a happy life. Greg knows this by experience.

* * *

If Greg was to consider himself a decent person, a good person, then it was only natural that Rose would be considered a saint.

He'd met his wife when he was twenty-one and still eagerly pursuing a life in music. He'd come to Beach City on a tour to perform, and though he played for a good couple of hours, song after song until he was exhausted, pouring his heart and soul into every word he sang, he only had a crowd of zero to sing to and perform to.

Well, he had thought it was a crowd of zero.

When his performance was over, someone was clapping and there he'd met the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid his eyes on. Rose Quartz, a medical student. She'd complimented him on his music, bought a shirt and an autographed CD and decided that she was going to be his biggest fan here in Beach City.

Greg had been enamored, and, well, you know the story. He said screw it to his dreams as a musician to chase her down and he started a relationship with Rose.

It hadn't been easy, or simple after that. What Greg hadn't known when he'd chased the beautiful pink haired woman down, what he didn't know until a few months into their relationship was that Rose wasn't a human being.

That said, it wasn't like she was an alien or something. But, she was a witch.

It caused some problems. Greg had been raised by a very conservative family that also happened to be one of the kinds of families that really, and he meant _really_ hated supernaturals. The ones that openly participated in ganging up on people who weren't 100% human, harassing them, beating them, or vandalizing their properties. That was the kind of family he was raised in, the family that taught him from birth that anything not human was a freak of nature.

He never really agreed with that line of thinking, the supernaturals he'd met while he was younger always seemed like cool people. And Rose? She was a wonderful, kind-hearted person. She was a good person. Her magic was primarily healing in nature, but also protective. She used her magic and skills in medicine to nurse people back to health, to protect people

Rose was just proof that the supernaturals were good people.

They bought an apartment together. Greg proposed, was disowned by his family and started a new family when Rose gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Steven. After a while, they moved out of the apartment and they got a house together. It was a little bit away from the city and on the beach, offering privacy and quietness.

It wasn't easy, Greg would never say that it was easy. He wasn't the richest person in the world, in fact, he was barely able to provide for his wife or child as he ran a car wash. But, he was happy and wasn't that what was most important in life? That he was happy with what he had?

Greg was certainly a protective father, too. He didn't have the slightest idea what he was doing, but he wanted to do it right. He wanted to keep his child safe from the world that didn't like people like Steven. Greg knew how people treated them, and he wanted to make sure his son would be happy and safe always.

But, Greg should have realized. He should have known that it wouldn't be sunshine and rainbows every day. He should have _known_ that bad things always happened. That, even though he was human didn't mean he was exempt from the tragedies that befell supernaturals. He should have known that he couldn't keep his family safe and sound, couldn't protect them.

It was night and all over the news was a live covering of a violent riot going on through a sizable chunk of the city. Humans and supernaturals had all but gone to war.

It had started as a peaceful protest. Another one of the supernatural groups standing outside of city hall, protesting for better treatment. They weren't doing anything wrong, they just wanted to be heard. They were pretty calm about it too, no yelling, no insults or slurs at the humans that ran the city. they just stood out there with their signs, asking people who walked by if they'd sign a petition or be interested in hearing what it was for. They were peaceful.

Then a group of humans, one of the very loud anti-supernatural ones came and struck a counter-protest. If it could even be called that. They stood across from the supernaturals, waving signs with demeaning phrases or slurs against the supernaturals. Throwing beer bottles at them, hurling racist slurs.

Then someone threw a punch.

And chaos broke loose.

It'd turned into a vicious riot that lasted well into the night

Rose had by that point already become a licensed paramedic and had gone to the riot to try and provide medical assistance to those who needed help. Greg had stayed home with their three-year-old son, watching cartoons with the boy to try and distract himself from the constant worry for his wife.

It was a horrible night, a violent night, a lot of people got killed. Human and supernatural alike. It was awful. Greg couldn't understand for the life of him why it had to break out into a fight like that. Why they couldn't just get along. Why it all had to go down like this.

After a while Greg tucked Steven into bed and read him a story, his boy didn't seem to think anything was wrong, didn't understand what was going on outside or why Rose wasn't home yet. He just said 'Night daddy' as he fell asleep and Greg stayed in the living room, cradling a mug of coffee as he waited. Too anxious to be able to fall asleep with Rose gone on duty. He'd resolved to just stay up all night until his love came home.

At three in the morning, Greg got a call from the hospital.

His wife, Rose Quartz-Universe had been hit by a stray bullet while in the riot trying to heal a kid who'd gotten hurt really badly. She didn't make it.

Greg cried, he held his little boy and cried. When Steven asked "Where's mommy? When's mommy coming home?" Greg cried even harder and didn't know how he was going to tell Steven that his mommy was never coming home again.

* * *

 **Authors Note:** Right now it's a choice between the Zircons or B/Y Pearls for what gets written next. Which you would guys like to see more?


	4. Chapter 4

Azure Pearl develops a crush on her blonde neighbor; Pearl Goldsberg, and it was a mistake she can't take back.

* * *

Azure first met her by chance. Well, she was bound to meet the girl eventually, anyways. The young college student rarely left her room, preferring to take online classes from the safety of her apartment where she didn't have to deal with the dangers of the outside (she didn't have the same courage her elder sister, Blanche had to go outside regularly). She was happy and safe inside and only really left her apartment when she really needed too (Such as to get a new supply of blood).

Well, she was bound to meet the girl eventually, anyway. The young college student rarely left her room, preferring to take online classes from the safety of her apartment where she didn't have to deal with the dangers of the outside (she didn't have the same courage her elder sister, Blanche had to go outside regularly). She was happy and safe inside and only really left her apartment when she really needed too (Such as to get a new supply of blood).

She'd been coming home late at night after having dinner with her sister and the boy she babysat (Steven, he was an adorable child that her sister treated like her own son). It was almost three in the morning and she'd almost been knocked out by a door to the apartment next to hers swinging open.

The woman on the other side of the door quickly apologized, citing that she hadn't meant to swing the door on her.

She was a beautiful young woman; tall and thin with bright blonde hair (Not a single strand was out of place) and golden eyes that made her look more mature. She introduced herself as Pearl, Pearl Goldsberg, and laughed a little when Azure brought up offhandedly that her surname was Pearl. She'd just moved into the apartment earlier that day and didn't really know the other tenants yet, so, she invited Azure inside for coffee and a chat to get to know her new neighbor, and that she had to especially get to know Azure who was 'a fellow pearl'.

Safe to say that Azure had developed a crush on her rather quickly after that. How could she not? The woman was charming and beautiful in equal measures.

But that wasn't exactly a good thing. Pearl was human. Something that Azure would remind herself constantly and agonize over every night. Pearl was _human_. Nothing good ever came out of dating a human. And it wasn't like she could just go and tell Pearl that she was a vampire. Not when vampires are one of the more hated kinds of supernaturals in this city. Blood sucking parasites and all.

But, despite the danger, she kept seeing Pearl. She never told her what she was, leading her to believe she was just as human as Pearl. They hung out together, went on dates together. Azure was actually pretty happy to be around Pearl. She'd call Blanche up and _gush_ over how in love she was with Pearl.

She never told Blanche that Pearl was human. Her sister would be in a panic over it. If asked she just deflected it or said some vague answer.

Three months after they started seeing each other, Pearl took her to a bar she often frequented, introduced her to some of her friends as the two drank and flirted. Then, when the bar closed at two in the morning, giggling and laughing, Pearl dragged Azure to an alley on their way home.

Azure was quickly pressed against the brick wall of the alley. She giggled a little, still somewhat tipsy, and her laughter was cut off with a muffled squeak as Pearl drew her in for a rather heated kiss. Fingers dug into her hips to hold her close, the warm body pressed flush against her own. Azure melted into the kiss, all breathy moans and weak knees as Pearl pinned her to the wall.

Suddenly those fingers were sliding upwards, pushing her shirt up and running along her skin under the fabric and those lips were pressed against her neck. Bathing her sensitive skin in kisses and then biting hard.

Everything had Azure's head spinning and she didn't want it to stop. It was heaven. It all was. The taste of Pearl's mouth on her own, the dips and curves of her body beneath Azure's own trailing hands, the feel of lips on her skin and not to mention the smell. The _smell_. Pearls scent was intoxicating. It was something deep and burning and a bit salty, like a spice rack in a burning house. All danger and depth at once. Azure wanted to drown in it.

But… there was something else mixed in with the smell. Another scent that hit Azure like a train and sent her mind reeling backward into a panic.

 _Blood._

She pulled away from the kiss immediately, ignoring the throb that came as her head hit the hard brick wall behind her as she clamped her mouth shut to keep her fangs from showing.

Pearl was watching her now, pulling back to put just a little distance between them as she stared down at Azure with a studious look. Azure had to shut her eyes tight in panic and fear as everything was spinning and crashing against itself in her mind. She's screwed up, hadn't she?

The scent was growing stronger, the scent of blood that is. Because she was now aware of it, it was all she could do to keep her mind from just zeroing in on that one scent. She couldn't get the smell out of her mind and with it brought images of the red liquid and she was reminded once again that she'd not been drinking her required amount this week and that only made it worse.

"Azure," Pearl said, voice reaching her. It was even and cold.

Azure's eyes snapped open as she felt the barrow of a gun pressed against her forehead, and looking up she saw Pearl holding it at her, her expression unreadable.

"Azure, be a dear for me and open up, nice and wide," Pearl said. She reached out with her free hand and cupped Azure's chin in a tight grip, raising her head to look at her, "It's either do as I say or I shoot; it's your choice."

The vampire gulped and reluctantly she opened her mouth just a touch, though she was forced to open it up wider as the barrel of Pearl's gun was forced into her mouth, showing her fangs to the world around. Azure shivered, terror coursing through her as she stared at Pearl.

"Ah, ah, ah, lookie here," Pearl said, something of a smirk quirking up her lips and Azure felt her stomach knotting up, ready to retch, "looks like someone's been busted."

Azure said nothing, not a word with the barrel of the gun in her mouth and terrified into silence, even as Pearl withdrew the firearm and held it steadily to Azure's face she couldn't make a word. Her body was trembling against the wall, her blood cold as ice and terror seeping deep into her bones.

Had Pearl done this before? Had she killed vampires before? The way she did it, she acted like a pro. Had she been manipulating Azure from the very beginning, waiting for some kind of proof, the right moment, for _something_ before she killed her in cold blood?

"Any last words, babe?" Pearl asked her, and when Azure couldn't muster up a single response, the woman's smile fell. She saw something, a hint of _something_ in Pearls face as she put her finger on the trigger. There was something in her voice, in her eyes that gave way that she didn't want this, either, "I wish it didn't have to come to this, but… business is business. You're a vampire; I have to do this. You understand, right?"

No. Azure didn't understand. She thought the two had something, that they could _be_ something. She didn't understand why Pearl felt she had to do this, to shoot her here and end her life. She'd was such a fool, she blindly trusted Pearl, she should have known better. Should have _known_ that nothing good ever comes from falling for a human. She was such an idiot.

Azure closed her eyes tightly, tears forming and her body shivered as a sob threatened to break through her. She dug her fingers into the cold, hard bricks of the wall as she waited. Whimpering a little as she felt the gun drag along her skin and then press down against her chest. Right over her heart.

She wished she could go back in time and never have met Pearl. She wished she could have done things differently. She wished she'd been born a human, then this never would have had to happen and she could have been with Pearl without all of this. She wished she could have lived a long and happy life rather than this cruelly cut short end. She wished that—

 _BANG_

Pearl watched the blue haired body fall limply to the ground, blood quickly starting to pool around the dead body as she took a shaky step back. Her body was trembling and she finally let her stoic facade fall and finally let a sob escape her as she buried her face in her hands. God... _oh God_... what'd she do?

She never wanted to do this, not to Azure… but she had a job… she had a boss. Yella gave her an order. She couldn't disobey, couldn't say no to a Diamond.

Oh God...

Pearl was crying openly now as her hand holding the gun shook and trembled. She wanted to reach out and touch Azure, but she couldn't bring herself to. She didn't deserve to, not after what she'd just done to her. She just stood there and cried. She was drowning in regret and guilt over what she had just done.

"I… I r-really am sorry… I didn't want to but… I… I'm so sorry Azure. I love you… I love you Azure, I'm s-sorry…"

 _BANG_


	5. Chapter 5

Defending supernaturals in court is a nightmare. It's a nightmare because you lose more than you win and the terrified, disappointed faces of your clients haunt your dreams.

* * *

It was a thankless job, it really was. A tiring, exhausting, thankless job that they so rarely succeeded at. Perhaps the most stressful job in their line of work.

To make things easier to understand; Bell Zircon and her wife Yana were lawyers. Specifically, they were lawyers who took on cases involving supernatural citizens. In their defense, of course! Even though the both of them were human, Yana and Bell prided themselves on viewing the supernaturals as valid people and believed wholeheartedly that they deserved the same rights humans got. Even though they were both different kinds of lawyers (Bell a defense attorney and Yana a prosecutor) they both did what they could to protect them in the world of law.

Bell would take on supernatural clients and defend them to the best of her ability, trying to prove them innocent to crimes thrown at them, crimes that were more often than not just false charges and claims made by people who wanted them gone. Yana was a prosecutor for cases of human violence against supernaturals, trying to ensure that the human who killed a supernatural or caused them severe injuries would get their just punishment.

However, in this biased world of theirs, the two didn't win nearly as many cases as they would have liked. The jury was almost always comprised of all humans, neither of them had come across a non-human judge yet, either. The odds were always stacked against the supernatural they tried to defend and protect.

Yana had installed a cabinet of hard liquor in their small house to help them deal with the guilt of not being able to win and keep their innocent client from prison or to get the killer behind bars. Every time they failed to win their case, they would never be able to forget the look on the face of the one they let down. Even if they had all the evidence, all the proof and a solid case, that it was undeniable that Bells client was innocent or the defendant Yana was prosecuting was guilting, the jury and judge would decide against them. For the sole reason being their discrimination against supernaturals.

Both of them wished they could do more.

They wished that they had more power to make a bigger impact, to actually be able to help these people. But as for now it was all they could do to give them their best in court and hope the judge wasn't already biased.

Bell sighed as she sat on the couch late that night, cradling a cup of coffee as she read over the papers for a case she would be presenting to court soon. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, feeling weariness dragging on her and adding ten years to her appearance as she tried to figure out how she could even win this case with the evidence found.

She was brought out of her thoughts as a warm body came to sit next to her, an arm wrapped around her shoulder and papers placed on the coffee table. Opening her eyes, she looked over at Yana who was looking over one of the papers she had brought over as she drew Bell to rest against her.

"What are you still doing up?" Bell asked through a yawn as she looked at the clock, "It's… three in the morning," she had to squint just to read the numbers, though they were still a little bleary, "you should be sleeping."

"So should you," was the response as her wife took a sip of Bells coffee and then handed her over the case she had been reading, "I have a favor for you, could you take this case for me?" she asked.

Bell raised a brow before she took the paper and read over the file. A few times she'd glance over at Yana between lines and after a couple of minutes she put the paper on her lap to look at her wife, "This isn't the kind of case I generally take on, you know I stick with criminal cases," she said slowly as she looked back to the file. Werewolf. One parent and one sibling, still in school and no criminal record or any sort of altercation with the law. "What brought this on?"

The blonde shrugged as she picked up another paper from the file, "You remember Ruby? My old roommate in college before you?" she waited until Bell nodded to continue, "Her wife called me a earlier today, asked if we could do something about this. So I went ahead and spent the day building up a case file, I just need a good lawyer for it and thought this was right up your alley."

"What are we even going to do if we win this case? She's...what's it say? Fourteen? She's already passed the 'adoptable' age families are looking for, and we can't promise she'll have a better life in a foster home- she'd likely have to deal with more bullying and neglect from everyone in the home," Bell pointed out as she read the paper. She hated it, but, sometimes putting a supernatural kid in with a new home and family only made things so much worse. There'd even been a recent study on how the suicide rate was higher for supernaturals in foster homes than with their biological families.

Still, it was horrible reading how parents would treat their own children so horribly just for something the child couldn't help. And Bell really wanted to help this girl, but, she could very well just make life worse for this one.

"Well… it doesn't necessarily need to be a foster home she goes to," Yana said slowly, "I know you've wanted to have a child, but with our jobs we'd never have the time to raise a baby…"

"Yana, what are you, no, Yana, no," Bell sat up straighter and turned her entire body to face her wife. "I know what you're thinking and no."

"We don't have to adopt her, but we can give her a safe environment and home- it's something I'd even been thinking about too. Offering a safe place for supernatural kids with abusive families to live at," Yana pressed as she reached out to Bell, "We may not always be able to help them in court, but, at least this way we can make a difference for some of them, protect some of them."

Bell frowned and looked at the file and mulled it over in her head. After a moment she heaved a sigh and shook her head, "It's a sound idea, and, well, I do want to be a mother," she worried her lip between her teeth as she weighed the pros and cons. But, her mind was made up quickly and she gave a solid nod, "First we'll have to take this to court for neglect and abuse, we'll need to talk to this girl too, anyway you can have Ruby and her wife set up a meeting for us?"

"I'll call them in the morning," Yana smiled as she wrapped her arms around Bells form, "We've got this, this case is as good as won. But, let's get you to bed now so you're rested for tomorrow's legal nightmares."


End file.
